forecasting the fallout here in washington and forecasting that massive storm developing in the atlantic with our team this morning. we want to get a quick check on the preparations in florida. there are more evacuations from the southern part of the state happening right now as you heard from governor scott just a couple of moments ago. >> the size of this storm is huge. it's wider than our entire state and could cause major or life-threaten iing impacts on bh coasts, coast to coast. >> msnbc's marriana artenzio, people have to evacuate. if they go to the east coast they may still end up in the path of irma. >> reporter: because the storm is so huge, hallie. now we know there's a shortage of gas. hitting the road is also a challenge. i've been at the airports since 4:00 in the morning today. this is the line for canceled

flights. even though miami international airport remains open, airlines have been canceling flights in and out. i've spoken to people who spent the night at the airport, making the last attempts to get as far away from this life-threatening storm as possible. let's see if we can talk to some people here. go ahead, ma'am. excuse us. hi, folks. where are you trying to get to today? >> atlanta, georgia. >> to get away from the storm? >> we were in cuba and they evacuated cuba for u.s. citizens. we had to make it here. now we're trying to get to our home state. >> you're running away from this storm, it's chasing you. what's the status of your flight right now? >> our flight has been canceled. it wasn't due back until saturday. we had to leave cuba. i just confirmed us a rental car so now we're driving. >> you basically have given up? >> oh, yeah, because it will be a couple of days before anybody will get out of here. >> you've gotten a rental car, you're going to hit the road in a couple of minutes? >> as soon as we leave here. like when i finish speaking with you. >> do you have any idea what the

gas situation is like, what the roads are like? >> well, when we were over in cuba, they were saying that they were running out of gas here. so the uber driver was telling us short cuts to go to get gas and food and avoid 95. >> thank you so much. hallie, as you heard, people giving up on the airport here all together, trying to hit the road. also driving all over miami the past day, you just see gas station after gas station saying -- >> why? no gas? >> challenge for folks to hit the road and get out of here. every official we've spoken to, we heard it from the governor, get out while you can. >> right. >> that's what we're seeing here at miami international airport. >> mariana artenzio, good luck to you there. puerto rico, two-thirds of the island is without power right now this morning after irma

blasted past. deborah, you live in houston. you've not had the best track record with hurricanes lately. your home was not affected by harvey. you came here to puerto rico on vacation? >> yes. i actually came -- my girlfriend's birthday. we were so excited because we were all getting out of houston after hurricane harvey. then we run into hurricane irma. >> can you tell me what it was like to experience irma there in puerto rico? >> it was very scary, because i'm living right on the beach. and there's no sea wall. being from houston and our beach, galveston, we definitely have a sea wall to hold the water back. but i was definitely not for sure of what the outcome would be with the category 5 storm. >> yeah. a real monster blowing through here. you have, i think, five family

members staying at your house back home in texas because of hurricane harvey, displaced from their homes. did you have any second thoughts about taking this trip to puerto rico, given what you had just seen in your neck of the woods in texas? >> yes, i did. yes, i did have second thoughts about it. and, actually, on the trip we did take out insurance in case something was to happen. but it didn't look like -- it absolutely looks like we would have came on vacation and got back before the storm was to hit. but i had no idea that it was such a powerful storm, packing that kind of weight. we had no idea that it would be, you know, as bad as it was. but on the side of the island that i am on, i'm on, actually

at the marriott hotel. i took a walk at 6:00 a.m. this morning to see if i could see damage. i'm really just so thankful that this side of the island was really spared. the businesses are opening back up. they are removing all the plywood and the shutters. and so it's definitely a blessing to be in a situation and to escape both hurricanes. >> had you hunkered down in the hotel? is that where you were? >> oh, yes. >> holed up there? >> actually, they brought us down to the lobby and they had planned activities, which required a lot of noise in the area that they had us all in. they had the music loud so that we could not hear the wind or if anything was breaking, we wouldn't have heard it. i do appreciate them for planning those activities for the adults as well as the

children. >> deborah adams there for us in puerto rico. deborah, of course, living in houston, which just got hit. now riding out hurricane irma there near san juan. thank you very much for joining us. i appreciate it. i want to get over to the bahamas now where they're getting ready finally for sort of the last-minute prep for irma. rehema ellis is in nassau. >> reporter: the biggest concern is tropical storm surges that they anticipate could be anywhere from 15 to 20 feet, which would provide massive flooding in the area. even more than that, they're concerned about drivenging water. we're at a water plant. there has been a bevy of activity. i'm going to have jet, my cameraman, pan over a little bit. you can see the line of cars. people started lining up at this facility about 3:00 in the morning, almost five hours before this facility opened its doors.

manager tells me they sold about 100,000 gallons of water yesterday. they expect to do that much or more today because people are worried that if the power goes down, they won't be able to get clean water. so, they're stocking up. southeastern portion of the islands, which were evacuated yesterday of about 1,000 people, they expect that to be hit around this afternoon, around 3:00 in the afternoon. many of the people came here to nassau. and this morning authorities told me that the entire country of the bahamas is now under a hurricane storm warning. but this is not out of harm's way. again, they expect they're going to get some major storm surge here in this area, so people are getting prepared. hallie? >> rehema ellis, stay safe in the bahamas. thank you so much. >> we want to get the latest track with hurricane irma with bill karins. it seems to be coming a little more clear where irma is headed. people in miami are certainly

not breathing any kind of a sigh of relief. >> no. west coast of florida should still be on guard and eventually all of our friends in the south carolina, georgia area, you need to be prepared for hurricane landfall, too. first point will be in south florida. new information. let me catch you up and i'll bring you the new models i just got in. there's one significant change. here is where the storm is located north of the dominican republic. major huge hurricane. category 5 storm, 180-mile-per-hour winds. they usually do not last this intense, this long. this one is. here is the watch and warning map. this will change over the next hour when we get the new update into the national hurricane center. no watches and warnings yet for florida. that should change. much of the state will go under a hurricane watch with this next advisory and tropical storm watches further up the coast. this was the 5:00 a.m. path. this is now four or five hours old. the next one comes out in 55 minutes from now. the storm will be south of miami. here is the bad part with the new information i just saw.

i don't expect them to change this path at all. i was hoping we could shift this a little further to the east but i'm not seeing that. if anything, we'll leave it right where it is. cat 4, borderline cat 5 making land fall somewhere south of miami, with the eye possibly going over key largo, west palm beach, miami, ft. lauderdale. all the huge population centers on the southeast coast, going through the eye of a category 4 hurricane. that's about as bad as you could draw up. then we'll have to see how strong the storm is by the time it gets into the carolinas. some of the computers still think it could be a category 3 by the time it got there. let me get to that one important change with the storm. i was showing you this. this is the usa model. this was from 2:00 a.m. just got the new update in. it will take my computer a little while to ingest all these frames. when i go to the next one, i show you this blue line is the graphic. greenish blue. that's the new model from the american. it actually comes right up into

florida. it has shifted. it went from being 50 to 60 miles offshore to now being right into the miami area. here is that model. hurricane center is the red line. this white line is the american model. it was out here in between the bahamas and florida. now it snakes its way right up into downtown miami, agreeing with our overnight european model. these model shifts, hallie, we get these new updates every six to 12 hours. as we close in on the events, the models get better. and everything is closing in on worst case scenario from west palm beach, miami, and the florida keys. >> i know you'll be keeping an eye on those models, tracking that. very serious stuff. >> president trump taking it seriously. getting a briefing on irma today. down on pennsylvania avenue from the white house, his son is on the hill, talking behind closed doors about that meet in he with a russian lawyer in june of 2016. all of it, as republicans on the hill apparently blindsided after

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be up for it

the woman at the center of that meeting is talking to us. she has not been contacted by robert mueller. gop leaders asking why did president trump cut this deal with democrats over the debt ceiling, government funding and harvey relief? kasie hunt has the answers, i know. i want to start with don junior. tell us what's happening behind closed doors in that meeting room. he got to the hill, i'm looking at my clock, about 45 minutes ago? >> reporter: hallie, this meeting started at 9:30 with senators and staff from the senate judicial committee. it's happening about five floors underneath my feet here. this is as close as we can get with a camera to that meeting. he came in, avoided the cameras on the way in. he came in through a hidden loading dock deep in the bowels of the capitol. one senator i talked to going in said he expected it would be

longer than two hours. chuck grassley, the judiciary chairman, talking to our colleague, garrick haake. staff meeting withton junior. think of it like a deposition in a court case as opposed to what democrats are hoping is a p prelude to a main event that could lead to testimony. that's something that the democrats on this committee are counting on. staff members are interviewing him. there are a couple of democratic senators that went into the room, dick durbin, rick blumenthal. >> kasie, don junior meeting happening and then president trump over at the white house sending out a tweet on daca. for all of those daca that are concerned about your status during the six-month period, have you nothing to worry about. no action! of all people, nancy pelosi had a hand in this tweet.

>> that's right, hallie. we are learning -- again, talk about confusion on this issue, a huge announcement from his attorney general, all 800,000 people with their fates and future in this country thrown into question. then another confusing tweet later in that day and now this. it seems like a complete reversal. and senior democratic aid tellas us here at nbc that, in fact, nancy pelosi asked the president to do this during a phone call. she is taking credit, essentially, for what happens happened. and my question still, is this a one off or a trend, but right now the president is acting as though the democrats are his partners across the board, based on his praise of chuck and nancy yesterday in that meeting, siding with them on this debt ceiling question over his own party. >> kasie hunt there, standing in front of where we expect to see nancy pelosi in about half an hour from now. talk about this, maybe take a

victory lap, kasie. hans nichols is over at the white house. bottom line, government stays open, money going to harvey victims. that's what the white house is talking about, right? they're pushing back on this deal with democrats. one adviser saying it's a deal for americans instead, the deal maker president, they say but a deal maker president taking the first offer that the democrats pushed. >> and that's the issue here, why they don't potentially want to call this a deal. they didn't get anything in return. just to return to the reporting from kasie and our hill team, the idea that nancy pelosi essentially is influencing president donald trump's twitter feed, remarkable turn of events. kasie talked about this idea of a trend. a deal he kt with the democrats. less than 24 hours later, nancy pelosi has control of the president's twitter account. that will cause a great deal of heartburn on capitol hill with republican leaders.

paul ryan will be here at the white house, having dinner with the president. the question from him will be, really, who is your ally? who are you working with? this whole notion of a deal, listen to how kellyanne conway put it when our own kristen welker pressed her on this notion of a deal. >> some republicans on capitol hill say he defied the party by striking a deal with democrats. how do you respond to that? >> that is just fall. there's no deal struck with democrats. this is a deal on behalf of the american people. but donald trump -- >> they're democrats. >> donald trump is a consonant deal maker. people in washington who have been living and work nth swamp for too long, they're not used to the trump pace of getting things done. >> i'm going to play simon editor. we need to find kasie and find a house republican who looks this deal and says it's a good deal. does anyone exist? she should also find some republicans to say what's more offensive, this tweet that pelosi directed the president to

do or the fact that they cut a deal for three months and didn't get anything? i get to give marching orders to kasie on live television. that's usually your role. >> i don't know, man. so bossy. later today, donald trump, by the way, has a news conference in a couple of hours from now which will create, likely, another cycle of headlines for the white house. hans, thank you. msnbc political analyst and rnc chairman michael steele as well as friend of the show, tim roberta and national reporter and msnbc contributor, yamisha elsignore. michael, we'll start with you. you know these republicans. you used to lead the party. are they really upset about all this? >> i think it's a beautiful thing. >> why? >> this is not surprising. i don't know why everybody is running around acting like oh, my god, i don't believe he did this. he is not locked in and beholden to a conservative agenda within the republican party. never has been. never will be. he is a free range chicken.

he is roaming and playing out there on the range with anyone who will play with him. you had two new yorkers in that room yesterday and you could look at that scene, schumer's on the couch, trump's in the chair. they're looking at each other. they know what's up. this deal works for trump because the republicans won't move the way he wants them to. he's like, okay, i'll go play with these guys. you want to come play with us, you're more than welcome. until then, this is the deal. despite what kellyanne said, deal for the american people. first offer on the table by chuck schumer and nancy pelosi, donald trump to score a number of points. one, going back to august, where he sort of is reminding folks, i heard what you said about me in august. little payback there. and, two, to show his independence from this senate and house leadership when it comes to the direction he wants public policy to go. >> is this a one-off or will this be a trend? you see pelosi influence in the

tweet sent out this morning. to touch on that tweet, d.r.e.a.m.ers are worried. >> they're freaked out what's going to happen in six months from now. the president said if congress doesn't act he will revisit the issue. it sounds like if this doesn't work out we'll go back to what obama, a democratic president, would do. it is a trend because donald trump is so impulsive. whether or not this is something he continues to do but my guess is that, yes, he will continue to do this. democrats on the hill were very happy about this deal. speaker paul ryan when asked about it by ""the new york times" this morning he said it's because it's a national crisis and he wanted to move. >> wanted to show bipartisanship in the wake of harvey? >> yes, that's his line. in reality, people on the hill, everyone is upset about this. nancy pelosi saying president trump you should tweet this and he tweets it, after arguing with mitch mcconnell, after going

after jeff sessions he's now tweeting what nancy pelosi wants him to tweet. republicans on the hill, i think, are furious about this and paul ryan will be talking about this when he goes to the white house. >> are the president's supporters upset about it? >> it works for the president for a couple of reasons. real or perceived you have nancy pelosi and chuck schumer pulling a republican president's strings. that is sort of the idea percolating through washington. it's important to realize that john boehner got ran out of town for -- because of the perception that he was not tough enough in standing up to the democrats when democrats controlled the white house. and boehner always said we don't have a republican president. now we have a republican president and he just gave the store away to democrats and yet conservatives on capitol hill, it's crickets. why? they are terrified of the president. they do not want to cross him. they don't want to cross his constituents in their district. >> my producer made a flow chart of exactly what happened wednesday and how this went down. president goes into a room with

the leaders and treasury secretary, who by our reporting, got cut off by the president. he sides with democrats, surprises everybody. he goes to north dakota, kind of says, hey, everybody is happy. maybe not super happy but a little happy. he brings heidi heitkamp up on stage with him and says she's a good woman. what are republicans thinking? >> what republicans need to think is stop assuming that they can control this president and his agenda. that they are going to be the ones in the driver's seat calling the shots with the administration. the assumption coming in to this was, hey, he doesn't know much. he'll have to rely on us. that's not necessarily the case. >> the discussion prior to this had been about this grassroots versus leadership fight that sources close to steve bannon, no longer in the white house but still has influence in the white house, is sort of gearing up for in september, what has been described as a bloody fight. he was out on tv, doing "60 minutes" this weekend. we're getting a preview where he said yeah, gary cohn should have

resigned if he was so upset by the president. how much is the president listening to that? how in trouble is gary cohn, if at all? it's no surprise that steve bannon is saying this. >> the fact that he went out there and criticized trump with his response to charlottesville sealed the deal. going forward, the fact that steve bannon is doing all these things goes back to a conversation i had with a senior white house aide where the person told me general kelly is frustrated that while donald trump is surrounded by these aides continues to talk to people with his personal cell phones and he only has memorized a few cell phones, steve bannon and omarosa. >> not going to change, though? >> no. no. it's just going to become more fun. >> michael steele, always a

pleasure to have you. >> great to be here. >> thank you very much. tim, and yamisha, we're going to ask you to hang out. millions of floridians, look at this, in line basically to get the heck out, as irma, category 5 storm, moves toward the u.s. up next, the mayor of hollywood, florida, about what the city is doing and how those evacuations are doing after the break. mom, i just saved a lot of money on my car insurance by switching to geico. i should take a closer look at geico... you know, geico can help you save money on your homeowners insurance too? great! geico can help insure our mountain chalet! how long have we been sawing this log? um, one hundred and fourteen years. man i thought my arm would be a lot more jacked by now. i'm not even sure this is real wood.

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we are back now with a look at this morning's headlines and a couple of pieces of news you may have missed. have you heard about this? betsy devos, today is expected to make an announcement on title ix in a couple of hours, centering on whether they will enforce obama era policies on campus sexual assault. provide safe environments for their students. devos will list-- other big news, facebook found more than $100,000 worth of ads bought during the 2016 campaign by a russian company linked to the kremlin.

these fake accounts focused on real hot button topics like race, immigration, gay rights. facebook staffers met with house and senate intel committees, looking into russia's interference in last year's elections. more than 100,000 people are expected to get out of miami dade county. as of about three hours ago, folks in mobile homes, barrier islands and low-lying spots are under mandatory evacuation orders. nbc's gabe gutierrez is on, i think, a causeway, right, gabe, that protects miami from these barrier islands. and this seems to be the real deal based on the forecast we just heard from bill karins a couple of minutes ago. >> that's exactly right, hallie. we are already getting a sense here that people are taking this very seriously, hallie. this is a monster storm, as we've been reporting, and stirring up memories of hurricane andrew. as you mentioned, 100,000 people, more than 100,000 people are affected by these ookee vac wagss expected to get under way here in miami county today.

broward county has some evacuations for some low-lying areas. and this is the largest mass evacuation in this area in 12 years. now the florida keys, florida governor rick scott has said already more than 31,000 people have bolted from the florida keys. they are heading north, obviously. the question right now is where do you go? because the storm is simply so large, expected if it keeps on the current track, supposed to take up much of the state of florida. where do you end up? four shelters have opened here in miami-dade county, one at the youth barracks and exposition center. right now, we should be seeing many businesses here on miami beach closing up. the place where we're at, parks and recreation department has come here and told people to get off this area ahead of the storm. we're still several days from this, hallie. again, authorities are saying people need to pay attention and they cannot wait until the last minute here. there's a run on gas and

supplies that we've been seeing. again, gas buddy.com reports more than a third of gas stations are already out of fuel in the miami-ft. lauderdale area. hallie, back to you. >> a real challenge. gabe gutierrez, thank you. i want to talk about it with josh levy, mayor of hollywood, florida. you can see it on your map there. let me start there. gabe is talking about gas stations out of gas. people are being told to get out. they can't fuel their car with gas and will be waiting in line to leave on a highway. where are they supposed to go? what are you telling them to do? >> the advice from county officials is to shelter in place. people can make their own decisions considering themselves and their family as to choosing to evacuate to a different locality. but county officials are mindful of the risks also with people traveling to unknown destinations. >> right. >> and are suggesting that if you live outside -- if you have friends or family outside of

evacuation zones a or b, which are on the coast, you might perhaps want to stay with friends and family that have their homes secured and barred up. >> mandatory evacuations go into effect 90 minutes from now in your neck of the woods r people going and staying with friends and family, are they trying to get out or are you seeing people trying to ride this thing out? >> most people are heeding warnings and being smart about it, finding friends and family outside evacuation zones and some are driving, some are flying flights out. i've seen reports of neighbors and residents driving to georgia and tennessee, chicago, wherever they might have friends and, of course, orlando and other parts of the state of florida. >> for people who have not yet gotten supplies, if they are staying in this zone, do they have time? are you telling them go get it now? go wait in line at the home depot, the hardware store?

>> for a number of days we've been advising residents that the time has been now to prepare for the storm. we have a couple more days to reach here. floridians are very aware of the risk of these storms. in our distant memory andrew and more recently wilma. with this storm, the population has known not to mess around. even if we're a day or two early in perhaps being bunkered down in a boarded up house, better safe than sorry. >> on that topic, you mentioned, obviously, an true. we heard the governor talk this is bigger and stronger than andrew. inevitably when people see these forecasts they think maybe it will take the turn east. you live in florida. how seriously should people be taking this? how serious are you taking this? >> this storm should be taken with the utmost and most severe level of risk that you should plan for.

we're talking about a category 5 storm right now. not knowing the ultimate forecast track. but it should stay on a forecast track that it is now we're looking at possibly a direct hit to broward county and the city of hollywood. from florida keys on north, to west palm beach, all of our areas are at risk. let's hope it turns more easterly of the florida peninsula. >> mayor before i let you go, when was the last time you remember being this concerned for the safety of folks in hollywood? >> this has been the most threatening storm since the city suffered -- the whole region devastat del suffered a devastating storm in the 1920s with the huvg thrrica that devastated the entire south florida area. not since then have we had this threat.

at least the hollywood area and, of course, keeping in mind andrew. >> mayor josh levy, thoughts and prayers are with you down there getting ready for irma. appreciate you joining us on this show. >> we're turning to a crisis developing overseas rather than here at home. in north korea. exclusive nbc news video of pyongyang's delegation at an economic forum in russia, accusing them of using economic meeting for dirty politics as vladimir putin hints that the trump administration might be willing to defuse tensions.

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reddi-wip. (flourish spray noise) share the joy. new this morning, u.s. intelligence agencies have assessed north korea's most recent test was probably the thermo nuclear weapon but haven't yet confirmed that through technical evidence, according to two u.s. officials briefed on the matter who talked to nbc news. after a series of meetings at an economic forum of asia-pacific leaders, vladimir putin says he thinks the trump administration is willing to defuse tensions on the korean peninsula. keir simmons is in russia for us. this forum making headlines also, right? >> reporter: that's right. this is pretty stunning to us. so much so that our producer just grabbed our iphones north

koreans walking around, openly in russia, having had a meeting with a russian minister and then issuing a statement in which they talk about trump -- president trump's fire and fury comments and call that evidence of plotting by the u.s. against our arepublic, they say, callin the u.s. impudent bandits and skroibing the nuclear test as a nuclear deterrence while, hallie, at the same time saying they will respond to any u.s. action with powerful counter measures. that video, showing the depth of the relationship between north korea and the russians, they are just openly here. and also illustrating how president putin is posing as peace maker, trying to put himself in the middle of this international crisis. today, while that was happening he was sitting on the stage with

the leaders of south korea and japan, talking about negotiations. hallie? >> keir simmons, staying up late again for us in russia, almost 1:00 in the morning. hope you get some sleep. >> you bet. >> it will be another long day for you tomorrow. tim and yamisha are back with me. let talk about what the president said about north korea before he got on marine one. >> mr. president, are you considering military action for north korea? >> we'll see what happens. we'll see what happens. certainly that's not the first choice but we'll see what happens. >> now you have vladimir putin saying sure, talks can go on. what's your sense of where things are going here? >> i don't think the president has a sense of where things are going here. three times we heard him say we will see what happens. it is remarkable that footage we just saw and that vladimir putin once again has figured out a way to stick his nose into --

>> insert himself in international affairs. >> and in a way that puts the president in a tough position. vladimir putin has been out of the headlines. three, four months ago, hallie, we were talking on the set about what was going on in syria and how the president had sort of a very difficult path ahead with no real good solution from him. now he is in another situation yet again. vladimir putin saying he wants to play peacemaker, that he wants to help sort this out. does he really? and what is the geo political game of chess that he is playing and how does the president respond, if at all, when he has so many things happening on the domestic front right now? one more headache for him and his white house. >> what i take from this is that vladimir putin -- the person benefiting from all of this is vladimir putin. you see him in this kind of like, i would say, hyperized role where he's saying there needs to be common sense here, that the u.s. is playing into north korea's hands. the fact that we're talking

about the leader of russia as if he somehow is going to know more than the leader of the united states, how to deal with north korea, is kind of remarkable and shows that vladimir putin is essentially winning this argument here. i think this whole conversation goes back to the idea that steve bannon in that interview said there really is no military option for north korea. >> the american prospect prior to him resigning? >> yeah, calling the bluff and saying that the u.s. is pretty much bluffing and that president trump while he says doesn't know what's going to happen, the thing that the u.s. does not want to do and has not really planned for is military action against north korea. >> a lot of people are watching saturday, this day when people -- people inside the administration, lawmakers, people in the region looking to saturday when a possible test could happen of something else at this point. i want to talk about what lawmakers think the result of that, the fallout of that would be. i know you're newly covering capitol hill for "the new york times," which is exciting. what is your sense from members

of congress if there is a test on saturday does that change the game or not? >> the sense that i get is that it would, of course, escalate it, make it harder for the u.s. to continue to kind of say we have to deal with that. it would be something that we can kick down the line later. it doesn't change the idea that the u.s. and congress do not want to be in a military action with north korea. that's not what the u.s. wants, what capitol hill wants. if on saturday there is a bigger test it will make it harder. >> tim? >> if decades of tests have not changed our policy towards north korea in any significant way i'm not sure why this one would. >> we are watching what is happening, obviously, overseas. as you referenced, tim, tons of stuff going on here at home. the president has a press conference in a couple of hours and over on capitol hill, getting ready to speak any second is nancy pelosi. a little bit of new reporting.

we talked earlier in the show that nancy pelosi asked the president to issue that tweet on daca? turns out according to one senior democratic aide, president trump actually called nancy pelosi, calling her, having the democrats and republicans over at the oval office, siding with them on a deal, tim. this is an interesting state of play at the moment. >> i think it's important for us to remember. this is not meant in any sort of sarcastic or snarky way. donald trump was donating money and building relationships with nancy pelosi and chuck schumer way before he ran fror president as a republican. >> his policies are not necessarily democratic policies. look what happened with daca. that is something that the steve bannon wing of his party wanted to see. >> he is not also someone driven by policy. he is driven by politics, by what makes me look good. so he is not someone that said i'm a hardline conservative and i have to do this. the fact that he tweeted and said if daca doesn't work out in

congress, i'll act. that goes against what paul ryan and mitch mcconnell want him to be saying but he wants his supporters to know that he can step into this role and get things done. >> nationalist agenda within daca that within 48 hours he said never mind i might not be so committed to doing this. >> a new statement -- i'm not being rude and look at my phone while you're talking. i'm looking at my e-mail. the press secretary, sarah huckabee sanders is telling reporters the following about the president and congressional leadership. forgive me, this literally just came in. i'm going to read it. we don't have a graphic for you. the president spoke to senators mcconnell and schumer as well as speaker ryan and minority leader pelosi this morning. the president is committed to working across the aisle and doing what is needed to best serve the american people. sarah huckabee sanders also notes that the president is having dinner with speaker ryan tonight. which we knew.

that's set to happen at 7:00 eastern. he is making phone calls to everybody in the oval office 24 hours ago. >> i think this reminds me of when i was interviewing people who voted for president obama and then voted for president trump. they said that president trump was a wild card and they understood that they were voting for someone that was going to be up in the air. >> they liked it? >> they liked it. you were out on the campaign trail the same way. people are getting exactly what they voted for. mitch mcconnell and the republicans, of course, are terrified about this. but i think that voters and his base are super happy about what's happening. >> let's be honest. i think this is what i lot of us were expecting january 20th right? we thought for the first few weeks of the administration we were going to see a great deal of outreach, hear a lot about bipartisan issues such as infrastructure. instead the president comes out guns blazing with a travel ban and everybody is looking around like hold on a second. maybe this isn't trump the deal maker. maybe this isn't trump the independent thinker a lot of voters thought he would be. >> you think this was eight months in the making? >> i don't know. as the relationships with

mcconnell and ryan, to a lesser extent, have soured with the white house, if donald trump isn't ready to sort of look around and say, you know what? could i play dealmaker with schumer and pelosi and if i did so, would my number my numbers down a point? i don't know they would. >> sources are telling me also that part of this is president festering over the failure of the health care reform effort led by in his view republicans in congress. they didn't get it done. so there seems to be a sense emerging and you can see it from looking at his interactions, why should i trust them, if i can deal with this and clear the decks to get more done when it comes to taxes, why not? >> he's been pushing to change the rules of the senate so they can in some ways push things throughout without having to do anything with democrats. the fact the republicans are saying i'm not ready to do that or completely change the way the senate functions in order to get something done for you, mr. president, i think that's left him feeling soured. >> in 90 seconds we're going to

see nancy pelosi take the podium and if i had to guess, i'm not a betting woman but if i had to, i thenk she might take a little bit of a victory lap in the sense of got the deal done that democrats wanted to do. had a conversation with the president this morning, got him to tweet what she asked him to tweet and get the feedback. >> she should take a victory lap. >> will that backfire? >> it might but to step back, anyone who covered capitol hill the last eight years this is so remarkable, in 2009-2010 republicans saying give us the house and 2014, give us the senate. but they still couldn't get anything done and conservative base was coming after john boehner and mitch mcconnell with pitch forks and now they have unified control of the government and nancy pelosi and chuck schumer are getting what they want and there's crickets from the con sefb tif base. donald trump sees this -- >> not necessarily crickets, we

have this breitbart headline, meet the swamp and a picture of donald trump sitting next to chuck schumer and nancy pelosi and mitch mcconnell. you know, maybe there is a sense from the base that they are -- >> how many conservatives in capitol hill are up in arms? >> we got reports that the freedom caucus is making veiled threats to paul ryan. >> meeting with steve bannon. >> and paul ryan yesterday laid out in the morning, here's our plan and what republican and conservative leerds think we should have and the president turns around and sabotages them an hour later. >> we watched it on air. we were sitting onset and carried the news conference, ridiculous, unworkable. he's feisty about it. then four hours later at the white house going huh, that was interesting. >> it's president trump in some ways showing his power and guess what -- almost treating the republican leaders like they work for him. you do what i tell you to do. paul ryan was saying it

wasserible to end daca, don't do this. we need time. as soon as president trump turned around and ended daca, he was then praising him for doing the right call. >> it looks as though we're getting ready now to see nancy pelosi. we had the two-minute warning and we have spoken for three minutes so a little behind schedule but i want to kind of keep the conversation going as she walks out and we listen in. let's talk about this after. for now, let's listen in to nancy pelosi. >> the last time we met was before we broke for the august district work period. we were august very enthusiastic, we are members, house democrats about a better teal, better jobs, better pay, better future how we would build infrastructure and create 10 million jobs and also have job training to create the tools for workforce for the 21st century and i'm proud of our members for

all of the events they had during the district worth perk to road test our better deal. and we are getting the response to all of that as they come back. during that period of time, just in case your message isn't eclipsed enough, what did we have? charlottesville. we had north korea. daca and of course sadly sadly the hurricanes, now more than one. but on harvey, my daughter lives in houston so she was giving me the reports on the hardships that she had seen. i was very proud of her. she has an art school called art nicks and the first day they could go out she called for help for art supplies for children in the shelters and they had 21 suvs full of art supplies to go out. in any event, they were okay but trying to help other people.

that's what is so beautiful about houston, people helping people, a sense of community. now we have irma, unknown as to what all of the consequences will be but sad about what's happening in puerto rico and -- well, all of the islands there but from the standpoint of our members, we hear directly from val lez quez not being able to communicate with her family and happily by today she has been able to. the loss of power there for nearly a million people and for a long period of time, it's happening in the virgin island and members in florida are connected very closely to their constituents. now the carolina members are coming forward as well. members while we're here still very much with our constituents in terms of those regions that are affected. of course, we have the wildfires in california and the rest. that is all to say when we

decide how we're going to allocate resources as we go forward, we have to think in terms of mitigation and prevention and we don't want to call it climate change but we can call it storms -- earth, wind and fire. how about that? does that work for you? as to how we mitigate things that have come -- as we go forward. north korea, my concern about north korea, mainly it has been for years, i went to pyongyang to north korea as many of you know, one of the few members of congress who has been to north korea. and when we were there we were challenging them many things about pows and starvation of their people and also about their testing of missiles at the time. at the time they were missiles. they said, you know what, we want to sell them. you want to buy them? we'll sell them to you. so this idea of north korea as a

proliferator is one they talked about 15 years ago or more. and that's what i'm concerned about. i think that what the president of north korea is doing is about deterrence but i think it's also -- i think it's also about a road show. he can sell, not only the technology, the scientific know-how, he can send scientists and missile and delivery system, i don't think he would proliferate the nuclear aspects of it. that's a deterrent for him. but all of the resources that are available to him were not indigenous. they came -- some of them came from other places. so this is a very dangerous situation in many ways, including that north korea could be a proliferator. again, our hearts go out to the families of everyone affected by the storms. as we're preparing to pass the

bill for harvey, as you know, we had a meeting at the white house yesterday. preparation for the meeting we went met with our members and decided that we were not going to be agreeable to an 18-month lifting of the debt ceiling. just destroyed any negotiating leverage that we would have. we talked about it and talked with our colleagues about it. some of the leadership colleagues about it and then yesterday morning the republicans put out that they were going to insist on this 18-month so we put out the three-month proposal that we had. it was a lively debate in the -- i told my caucus before we went -- this is our proposal is -- >> wanted to listen in to nancy pelosi for ten more seconds because she's talking about that meeting in the oval office calling it a lively debate.

not sure this we still have her audio. >> made it clear we would not do any longer debt ceiling than we had of the continuing -- >> she and chuck schumer did not want to see a longer term debt deal as was made clear by the president's decision to accept terms of a three-month deal instead. before we get to the hurricane update at the top of the hour which we have to get to, very quick last thoughts. you sat up when she talked about negotiating leverage for democrats. >> it is amazing republicans have to vote twice on the debt ceiling. >> i think she was careful not to gloet too much because she realizes donald trump does not want to seem as though controlled by the democrats. >> sometimes things more important than politics. we have hurricane irma barreling towards florida and another update from the national hurricane center. i'll turn it over to ali velshi

and stephanie ruhle who pick up our coverage now. >> good morning, i'm stephanie ruhle. >> it's thursday, september 7th. let's get started. >> we are getting our first look at the catastrophic damage where irma first made landfall. >> the small island of barbuda was nearly demolished. >> what i saw was heart wrenching, absolutely devastating. >> more than a million people here are waking up without power. >> irma is bearing down on turks and caicos and the bahamas. >> a growing fear south florida will take a direct hit and it dob catastrophic, causing anxiety up and down the southeast coast. >> if you think you're a tough guy, you're on your own. >> more than a third at stations in the miami ft. lauderdale air